


Season 2, Episode 0: New Frontiers

by Peaches and RAmen (Peachy00Keen)



Series: Star Trek: Babel [14]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek - Various Authors, Star Trek Online
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aliens, Andorians, Bosqun, Emergency - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Gen, Gliesians, Humans, M/M, Multi, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Crisis, Prologue, Psychological Trauma, Refugees, Science, Science Fiction, Star Trek References, Star Trek: Babel, Tellarites, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 10:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28350078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peachy00Keen/pseuds/Peaches%20and%20RAmen
Summary: Free at last from their struggle with the Mirror Universe, Babel and her crew are enjoying the mundanity of regular survey missions through the unexplored space of the NASET Expanse. Their peace is short-lived when a planetary survey is interrupted by a fleeing ship, packed with civilians, on a collision course for the nearest star.
Series: Star Trek: Babel [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1623328
Comments: 4
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

_Captain’s Log, Stardate 49162.1: It has been a long two months since the destruction of the_ Dauntless _and the ensuing arrest and court-martial of Admiral Elias Patterson, my one-time mentor and friend. Much of what transpired in secret over the first six months of our mission has been classified by Starfleet, and the Federation at large will soon hear of Admiral Patterson’s “retirement”. I hear New Zealand is lovely this time of year, though I suspect Eli won’t be in a position to enjoy the sights for some time.  
  
With Patterson no longer in service, _Babel _has been temporarily reassigned to Admiral Nechayev, who has granted my request to continue the mission we signed on for: To explore the unknown reaches of space beyond the Federation. Over the past eight months, we’ve met with the Brevhal, the Strux, and the Grottians, spacefaring species beyond Federation territory with warp capabilities. We’ve observed others, both industrialized species reaching for the stars and others just starting on their evolutionary journey, but I believe our most remarkable discoveries are still ahead of us.  
  
Today, _Babel _continues its survey of TNC 94173, an O-class star with unusually high ultraviolet radiation levels. Despite its close proximity to the star, my Chief Science Officer tells me that one of the planets in the system is showing signs of life underground and has asked for permission to do an extended survey, to which I’ve reluctantly agreed. His team is on the surface now and is due back with their findings in a few minutes. For now, all appears to be quiet on_ Babel _._  
  
Raj closed the log and leaned back in his chair. Had it really been two months since the Terran attack? It felt like just yesterday, or perhaps a lifetime ago. In a certain sense, it was another lifetime for him. When he’d accepted Eli’s offer of reinstatement and another command, he’d done it knowing somehow that it would be the end for him. “Better to die in the center seat than wither away at home alone,” he’d told himself, but here he was, eight months later and two months removed from the attack that had been meant to kill him. Now he had a future ahead of him again, and more surprising was the fact that he was actually looking forward to it. Being on the bridge of a starship again had brought with it a new energy, the spark that he’d been missing in the years since the destruction of the _Igni_.  
  
 _No,_ he realized. _That spark died with Rebecca and Arjun, twenty years ago._ The thought took him by surprise. It hadn’t just been a mission he’d been missing. _Babel_ had brought back far more for him than a career, or something to occupy his mind and body. It had brought him back to life, in more ways than one. Now, he had a _purpose_ , and not just a destination like the _Dauntless_ had been. He was a Starfleet officer. An explorer. And he had a whole new frontier ahead of him, and a good crew at his back.  
  
 _“Captain,”_ his First Officer called through his combadge. _“We have an inbound warp signature. I don’t recognize the vessel, but it should be in visual range in about five minutes.”_  
  
“On my way, Commander,” Raj answered, sparing a parting glance at the old family photo on his desk. _I still miss you,_ he thought. _But I think I still have some work to do before we meet again._


	2. Chapter 2

“Sir, we’ve found something,” called one of the young science officers from across the cave. Being addressed by a formal title was still something Jeremy was adjusting to even two months after being promoted. The role itself, however, came naturally.  
  
“What’ve you got?” he asked, walking over to where Ensign Milo Faust stood beside the towering Gliesian, Ensign Koltak Rygelix. Both of them held tricorders near a fissure in the wall of the cave.  
  
“We’re picking up elevated readings of phosphine coming from this opening,” the multicolored alien said, their voice muffled through the EV suit. “It would seem that whatever life we detected from orbit is within the walls of the cave system. I suspect we’re looking at the byproduct of some anaerobic bacterial life.”  
  
“Either it’s within the walls,” Milo added, waving his tricorder up and down the surrounding rock face, “or those fissures are venting air from a separate chamber.”  
  
“Also within the walls,” Koltak clarified sardonically.  
  
“...Right.”  
  
“We’ll have to gather what data we can from the fissures. These suits weren’t optimized for researching inside of ovens.” Jeremy turned and addressed the other members of his small away team. “Keera, Temmu, focus on gathering tricorder readings on the topography behind the cave walls. We’ll analyze the data once we’re back on _Babel_. We have ten minutes before we need to beam out.”  
  
The team replied with a round of affirmatives before returning to their work. Jeremy glanced down at the data streaming onto his PADD from the various tricorder scans being performed by his team, but despite his eagerness to find evidence to support his growing hunch about life beneath the surface of this uninhabitable world, a distracting question nagged at him. He lowered his PADD and returned to the fissure where Milo and Koltak had been left to their work.  
  
“Ensign,” he said, and both officers looked up. “Rygelix,” he clarified, still not entirely used to the formalities that came with his new title.  
  
Koltak stood up straight as Milo turned back to his tricorder. “Yes, sir?”  
  
Jeremy paused. Duty was supposed to take precedence over personal pursuits. “I’d like your help analyzing the data once we’re back on _Babel_.”  
  
“Of course, sir.”  
  
“I’d also just like to chat, informally.”  
  
Koltak glanced to the middle distance beside Jeremy’s head before meeting his eyes again and nodding. “Of course.” The tall technicolor alien pointed hesitantly over their shoulder. “Should I get back to my scans now?”  
  
Jeremy shook his head, dismissing the aside. “Yeah, uh, dismissed-- or, uh, as you were.”  
  
Why did rank add so much complication? The two had never exactly been buddy-buddy, but before their promotions, things had seemed casual at the very least. Now, everyone seemed far less willing to be comfortably conversational with him. The geologist and now Chief Science Officer sighed to himself and pulled the data stream back up on his PADD.


	3. Chapter 3

Back on _Babel_ , Jeremy sat alone in the conference room situated at the center of the atrium of Main Science. The glass walls were tinted opaque and the lights inside were comfortably dim, permitting just the right amount of brightness to read without getting a headache. On the table before him sat a chilled mug of root beer and four handheld display devices, each one presenting tricorder data from a different part of the survey area. He pored over the data, comparing atmospheric gas concentrations across the screens as one hand hovered near the handle of his beverage, his attention thoroughly consumed by the numbers in front of him. When the door chime sounded, he nearly jumped out of his seat.  
  
Grateful for not having spilled sweet carbonated beverage all over his research, he cleared his throat. “Come in.”  
  
The tinted wall of the conference room opened to the bright atrium outside, and a tall figure stood hunched in the doorway. “I’m sorry I’m late, sir,” Koltak apologized, stepping into the room.  
  
“You’re hardly late. I was just having a look at the data we gathered down at the surface. I figured I could use some help going over it.” He gestured to the chairs on the opposite side of the table.  
  
The Gliesian glanced down at the chairs and folded their tall body into one, turning sideways to the table so as not to hit their knees. Koltak folded their blue hands neatly on the table and looked up at Jeremy patiently, waiting.  
  
Jeremy met the Gliesian’s gaze in a brief moment of awkward silence before he realized they were waiting for orders. He leaned back in his chair with a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I called you in to help me on one condition -- well, two really.”  
  
“What are those conditions, sir?”  
  
“First, stop sir-ing me. I may be the new department head, but I’m still me. Being called ‘sir’ all the time makes me feel old and important, and I don’t want the responsibility that comes with being either of those things.”  
  
The straight-faced new ensign cracked a wry smile. “Alright. What’s the second condition?”  
  
“The second condition is that we talk a little. I know practically nothing about you other than that you and one of our engineers might be keeping our warp theorist as a pet.” He saw that the prospect of opening up had frightened off the rare bit of emotion that had crept onto the Gliesian’s face. Jeremy offered his warmest smile. “Tell me a bit about yourself.” He slid two of the PADDs across the table.  
  
“Is that an order?”  
  
“No,” he began, pausing on the brink of another wisecrack. “Computer: Lights up.” The dimly illuminated room gradually rose to proper daylight levels. Jeremy reached for his two screens and situated them in front of where he sat, across from Koltak. “I’ve been looking at the rock compositions and trying to determine other potential causes for the phosphine gas, but as far as I can tell, the planet simply isn’t massive enough to manufacture the gas itself. Then again, my training is in geology. You’re the exobiologist, so if there’s a biotic factor in play, you’d be the one to ask. Am I correct?”  
  
“I suppose so, though there are other exobiologists on staff with more experience than I have.”  
  
“True, but I want fresh ideas. Ensign Trask is a fantastic exobiologist, but she’s also at least old enough to be my aunt.” Jeremy reached across the table and tapped the top of one of the PADDs he’d handed to Koltak. “I want to know _your_ thoughts on this discovery.”  
  
“Well, if we’re being frank about it, technically, there’s been no discovery yet aside from the presence of an anomalous gas on the surface of an inhospitable planet.” Koltak picked up the two personal display devices and thumbed through the data. “While it’s highly unlikely, it’s not impossible to presume that processes within the planet’s crust formed the phosphine gas, which is escaping through fissures caused by seismic activity.” They looked up from the PADDS. “That hypothesis, however, falls within your jurisdiction, not mine.”  
  
“And I’ve all but ruled that option out. Even with substantial tectonic or volcanic activity, the planet is too small to create the right conditions. If that weren’t the case, then we’d be seeing phosphine traces across every Class-Y hellscape, but we aren’t. That only reasonably leaves a biological answer.”  
  
Koltak narrowed their icy blue eyes. “It sounds like you already have your conclusion, then. May I leave?”  
  
“Why the rush?”  
  
“You wanted my input, so I gave it to you. Now, I am asking for a reprieve.”  
  
“A _reprieve_?” Jeremy felt as hurt as he looked. “Koltak, I want to know more about you. This isn’t some kind of drill.” He pushed the PADDs aside. “I want to know what drives your passion. I want to know why you chose exobiology instead of security or engineering. I want to know more about _Babel_ ’s newest ensign and what made you, Koltak Rygelix, decide to become the first Gliesian in Starfleet.”  
  
The tall alien didn’t answer at first, surrounding them both in tense silence.  
  
“I chose exobiology because I value life,” they finally said, tersely. “I chose Starfleet because I value choice, and I chose to take on a commission because…” Koltak broke off and dropped their hostile tone. “Because someone finally made me realize that my stay here didn’t have to be a temporary one.”  
  
All four of the devices on the table pinged in unison as new data washed over the screens. The lab results from the biology department had come in. Jeremy raised his eyebrows.  
  
“Well, what do you know.” He looked up. “Do you know who gathered the samples from inside the fissure site?”  
  
Koltak stared at their screen. “I did…”  
  
“Then, congratulations are in order! It looks like you’ve discovered a new type of bacteria.”  
  
Over the course of _Babel_ ’s journey, Jeremy had made a point of doing a cursory review of Gliesians after his first encounter with Koltak, but he hadn’t had many opportunities to work with them personally. According to the limited information in the Federation databanks, Gliesians were a relatively inexpressive people, akin to Vulcans if they’d channeled their stoicism into military exploits instead of science and research. His first impression of Koltak seemed to support the notion, and the enlisted crewman had made no effort to reach out and break the mold, but over the last few months, Jeremy had noticed a gradual but significant change in their behavior. Koltak, once known among the science department as their resident recluse, could now be seen regularly walking the halls with Lieutenant Benson and Ensign Thriss, and the exuberant nature of the two women seemed to have rubbed off on their friend. Watching Koltak take in the news, Jeremy watched, fascinated, as the Gliesian’s brow ridges and cranial frills twitched through a flurry of recognizable emotions: Curiosity, surprise, incredulity, excitement.  
  
Jeremy was about to ask if they’d ever thought about naming a discovery before when Koltak spoke up.  
  
“It’s incredible that any life at all could survive someplace so hostile and barren,” they said, not looking up from the PADD. “More than that, deep inside the walls of that cavern, there’s an entire ecosystem flourishing. There are multiple colonies of bacteria present in these samples. A whole microscopic world living off of nothing but toxic gas and darkness lives in those caverns. Despite the odds, life found a way.”  
  
“So that’s it then,” Jeremy noted, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smile.  
  
Koltak looked up, their frost-colored eyes wide and uncomprehending.  
  
“I knew you had a passion about you that drove you to stick with Starfleet despite being the only one of your kind here. Now, I see what that passion is.”  
  
“Is there a problem with that?” the Gliesian asked defensively.  
  
“Quite the opposite. It’s nice to see someone so deeply attached to their work. I remember how you took a stance against the rest of the crew when we encountered that energy being earlier this year. I’ve never seen anyone try so hard to save the life of something we didn’t understand.”  
  
“Life, in all its forms, is worth preserving, from anaerobic bacteria to transphasic cosmozoans. Whether or not something looks like you is irrelevant. If there’s an opportunity to appreciate or communicate with some other form of life, we should take it.” Koltak cast their gaze downward. “I grew up on a hateful planet full of warmongers and violent elitists. I was never interested in the ways of my people. As a child, I was bullied, but I never fought back. As an adult, I studied the sciences on Gliese, though my work was always in a military capacity. Biology was a study of medicine or warfare. Astronomy was an aerospace study for field applications. Eventually, I had to commit to a career that benefitted the military, but I refused. Instead, I bought passage on a transport off-world and let the ship take me wherever it was going. I ended up on a Federation starbase, where I lived for a short time before enlisting in Starfleet to study science in a… less hostile environment. It was a lonely but peaceful career until I was transferred to _Babel_.”  
  
“Have you ever considered going back home?”  
  
Koltak looked up at Jeremy. “There’s nothing there for me anymore. Truthfully, there never was. I never believed the propaganda of any of the warring factions, and war is all my planet knows. Solitude is almost impossible to come by, and remaining neutral isn’t an option. Every nation pours all of its resources into maintaining and furthering their individual goals of supremacy over the other factions. More power, more control, greater influence and social standing for the members of the aristocracy who sponsored the fighting… There was never any peace. Everything we do from childhood to death is to further the state. Some of the older generations say the war will never end. I had no intentions of sticking around to find out whether or not they were right.”  
  
The two sat in silence for a moment, the only sound between them was the soft pittering and chirping of the PADDs as they refreshed with new data.  
  
“I hope Starfleet lives up to your expectations,” Jeremy offered meekly, acutely aware of all the conflicts _Babel_ had already wandered into.  
  
“So far, it’s been the best life I’ve known, even during the loneliest times. I’m grateful that things seem to be moving in a more inclusive direction lately.”  
  
“It’s hard to not belong when you’re surrounded by misfits,” Jeremy said with a smile.  
  
“I suppose that’s true,” Koltak said, hiding their smile as they looked down at the PADDs on the table. “About the data… could I help you write the report on the microbes?”  
  
“I was going to suggest that we co-author it, with you as the primary contributor.”  
  
Koltak glanced up in surprise. “Me? It was your away mission.”  
  
“You’re the exobiologist,” he shrugged. “I just like caves.”


	4. Chapter 4

“What am I looking at?” Raj asked as the small ship came into view. His First Officer, sitting to his right, shared his puzzled expression.  
  
“It’s larger than a shuttle, but not by much.” Shannon keyed a command into the console on the armrest of her chair and the image was magnified tenfold. The ship, if it could be called that, was a long, rectangular grey-green slab with a pair of short warp nacelles that looked like they’d been clumsily welded to the back end of its frame.  
  
“It’s traveling at just under Warp Four,” reported Ensign Jemison, Babel’s lead helmsman. “It should be entering the system... now.”  
  
The small vessel jumped out of warp right on cue, about a quarter rotation of the small planet ahead of _Babel_. Raj looked over to Shannon and gave her a slight nod. “Move to meet them, one-quarter impulse. Shall we introduce ourselves?”  
  
The redhead entered another command and nodded back to Raj. “Channel is open, sir.”  
  
Raj stood from his chair and folded his hands behind his back. The gesture was unnecessary on an audio-only channel, but it was a matter of habit, one that helped ease him into the role of diplomat and negotiator, and he’d never found it worthwhile to try to break it.  
  
“Greetings, fellow travelers. I am Captain Raj Murali of the Federation starship _Babel_ , and I’m pleased to-”  
  
As soon as he began to speak, the small ship abruptly turned with a maneuvering speed he wouldn’t have thought possible from such a crude-looking vessel and sped away in the direction of the system’s star.  
  
“They, uh, appear to be fleeing, sir,” Jemison said, staring in confusion at the viewscreen along with the rest of the officers on the bridge.  
  
“I can see that,” he replied, equally perplexed. He looked back at his crew helplessly. “Do you suppose it was something I said?”


	5. Chapter 5

Renetta stood outside the doors to the Stellar Cartography lab, reviewing the notes on her PADD for what must have been the sixth or seventh time since she left Main Science. Now that _Babel_ was truly on its own course through the NASET Expanse, Jeremy had appointed her as the head of Subspace Mechanics. She had already spent hours poring over the data from the Near-Arm Survey and Exploration Telescope and its descendant telescopes, for which their region of space had been named. That wasn’t the challenge. Her new position meant that she had to leave the comfort of the glowing monitors and quiet shuffling of scientists in the analytics lab and collaborate with the head of Stellar Cartography, a Lieutenant by the name of Shi Yingyue, whom she had never met. Her only impressions of the woman had come from David, who now reported to her directly. His analysis of her was that she was a very organized and straight-to-the-point kind of person who tolerated very little dalliance. It was hardly the most comforting introduction she could have hoped for.  
  
 _We just need to work on plotting new subspace routes_ , Renetta told herself, her eyes glazing over words she’d already read too many times. _It’s just business. She’s not even that much older than you, and you’re the same rank, so it’s not that big of a deal. Just pull yourself together._  
  
Renetta drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before turning and walking into the Stellar Cartography lab.  
  
She’d been in this particular lab before, but the massive curving ceiling of the planetarium always awed her. It was a little bubble of space within the greater expanse beyond the ship, and it fascinated her to no end.  
  
 _I’d never get any work done if I worked here…_  
  
“You must be Lieutenant Benson,” came a crisp, slightly accented voice from somewhere in the darkened room.  
  
Renetta turned and her eyes adjusted to see the figure of a woman approaching her, extending a hand. She extended her own palm in return. “Yes, you must be Lieutenant Yingyue.”  
  
“Lieutenant Shi, actually, but yes. It’s nice to meet you.”  
  
 _Just keep going._ “Likewise. My apologies. Is there… somewhere brighter we can go over notes?”  
  
“Of course.” The woman turned, her dark, shoulder-length hair flaring out in a smooth sheet as she moved. “We have a conference room this way.”  
  
Renetta followed behind Lieutenant Shi. Despite her commanding presence, the woman only stood an inch or two taller than she did. _Maybe I can learn a thing or two from her about not being such a wimp_ , Renetta thought as they entered the conference room. The door shut behind them and Lieutenant Shi ordered up the lights. They rose to a normal brightness, and Renetta winced slightly.  
  
“The darkness in the lab takes a little getting used to. Sometimes I feel like a bat working down here all the time.” The other woman pulled out a chair and gestured to the one beside her. “Have a seat and we’ll look over what you’ve got.”  
  
The line was such a stark juxtaposition to the woman’s demeanor that it took Renetta by surprise, but she remembered what David had said about his superior’s tolerance for delay, and she hurried to her seat. Renetta held her PADD out in front of her and scrolled to the beginning of her notes.  
  
“I’ve been analyzing the survey data from the NASET family of telescopes, and it looks like this region of space is littered with subspace anomalies, some of which have been noted to migrate.” She opened an attached file and brought up a map with a series of labels that moved throughout a timelapse. “This one in particular seems to follow an erratic course. Unfortunately, it’s also a pretty significant disturbance with--”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Lieutenant Shi interrupted, bringing up her own PADD. “Would you mind transferring a copy of your notes so I can follow along on my screen?”  
  
Renetta hesitated momentarily before obliging. “Sure. I was going to send you a copy once we were all finished, but I can send it now.” She initiated the data transfer, and in a matter of seconds, the master file popped up on the other woman’s screen. While the files were moving, Lieutenant Shi unclipped a pair of neatly-folded, black, half-rim glasses from the collar of her uniform and put them on before picking up the PADD and navigating to the map they had been looking at.  
  
“I didn’t know anyone still wore glasses,” Renetta said curiously. The other woman turned her head to look at her but said nothing. “I-I’m sorry,” Renetta stammered, backpedaling. “It’s none of my business.” She picked up her device and hastily resumed her explanation of the data.  
  
“As I was saying, there is one significant subspace disturbance in the NASET Expanse that seems to disappear and reappear at random. Others seem to either be stationary or move along predictable trajectories. There’s a list of them, each with a brief synopsis, in the primary document.” Renetta took her thumb and forefinger and zoomed in on a section of the map. “Another point of note in this sector is this magnetar. I’m not sure if we’ll venture out in this direction, but it might be worth studying at some point. In the meantime, it’s definitely worth noting. The surveys observed significant warping and rippling of subspace within about a quarter light-year of the star.”  
  
“What about this nebula?” Lieutenant Shi asked. Renetta looked over at her screen and saw that the woman was analyzing a different section of the region several points further down in the notes she’d transferred.  
  
“It’s a dark nebula. The surveys weren’t able to gather terribly detailed information on the region due to some kind of interference. We’re not sure where the interference came from, but I’d be willing to wager it came from within the dust clouds. Based on the patterns in the data, my guess is that there are significant concentrations of dark matter and possibly a pocket of antimatter. It could account for at least some of the bizarre readings.”  
  
“Or lack thereof,” the woman added, jumping back to the main document. She scrolled down a few lines and blinked three times in quick succession. In the silence between them, Renetta could hear a faint buzzing noise. It lasted for about thirty seconds, then it stopped.  
  
“What about this ‘Zone Eighty-Four’?” Lieutenant Shi asked.  
  
Renetta scrambled to remember where Zone Eighty-Four was on the map and zoomed in on it. “Here,” she said, pointing. “It’s a collection of three planetary systems that appear to host only gas giants. Specifically, each star is orbited by a hot Jupiter and a series of smaller, colder gas giants. All of them are swarming with moons.”  
  
“That sounds like a place worth exploring.”  
  
“I agree.”  
  
Lieutenant Shi set her PADD down on the table and turned in her seat to face Renetta. “You’re working on a paper about warp efficiency, right?”  
  
“Uh, yes, actually.” The sudden change of topic jarred her. “Did you want to keep working through the notes, or…”  
  
The other woman waved her hand dismissively. “We’ll get to that. I want to know more about who I’m going to be working with.” She reached up and removed the glasses, folding them neatly as they were before and tucking one arm into her collar. “Clearly, you’re a smart young woman. You’re obviously incredibly dedicated to your work and quite good at what you do.”  
  
“Um, thank you.” Renetta fished for a proper response. “You seem… astute? You’re certainly confident, and… a bit intimidating?”  
  
Lieutenant Shi let out a laugh. “You’re not the first to say that, but you are the first to say it to my face.” The woman’s smile lingered on her face, creasing the corners of her eyes. “I admire your honesty. I’ll make an effort to be a bit less brusque if that will put you more at ease. Just don’t tell my team that I know how to relax.”  
  
“Of course-- I mean, thank you.” Renetta let out a quick, exasperated sigh. “If we’re going for full honesty, I’m used to working alone, and I tend to get hung up on details when presenting. If I start lagging behind, just tell me. Eventually, I’ll figure out how you like things conveyed. Most of the people I work with crave details on _everything_ , though that’s kind of how physics works. Details, details, details.”  
  
“I prefer quick overviews. They’re called ‘briefings’ for a reason, I like to say.”  
  
“So I’ve heard,” Renetta chuckled.  
  
“You’re friends with my new transfer, aren’t you?”  
  
Her mind froze, and the room suddenly felt colder. “Yeah… You could say that.” It was only recently that they’d started trying to patch things up and move on as friends, but the memories of everything that happened were still so sharp and fresh, it sometimes felt like it’d all just happened a few days prior.  
  
“I’m sorry. I suppose here, it’s not my place to pry,” the other woman said softly. “The two of you were a rather popular topic of conversation a while back.” Renetta looked up in a panic, but Lieutenant Shi wasn’t looking at her. “Everyone on board was so relieved when the two of you returned safely. It was quite the ordeal, even to those of us who weren’t involved.”  
  
“It’s a bit of a tender subject if you don’t mind.” Renetta could feel nausea roiling in her stomach and the traces of a headache threatening her temples. _Why do people always want to talk about what happened?_  
  
“Of course,” she conceded. “My apologies.”  
  
An awkward silence settled over the room, and Renetta shifted uncomfortably in her chair. At that moment, she wanted to shrink into oblivion, disappear into subspace, or otherwise cease to be. Instead, she was trapped in a chair in a conference room surrounded by a dark laboratory. Claustrophobia began closing in on her from all sides, draining the air from the room and crushing her field of view in a hazy black frame. She swore she could smell the sharp scent of disinfectant, then the agonized screams in the back of her head, screams and smells she knew weren’t really there. Reality shifted and suddenly she was back in the room in the underground lab where the disfigured alien scientist had David restrained on the table, writhing in terror as he moved in for the final blow with the glowing-hot device that had taken David’s dreams and career from him in a single, drawn-out, agonizing act.  
  
“Lieutenant!”  
  
Renetta gasped. She was out of breath and panting as if she’d just sprinted the length of the ship a dozen times. Her hands were clammy, and she could feel the sweat running down the back of her chilled neck. Lieutenant Shi stood over her, both hands clamped down on Renetta’s shoulders.  
  
“Are you alright?” the other woman asked, loosening her grip but not letting go.  
  
“N-- I, uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I’m sorry, Lieutenant.”  
  
“My god,” the woman rolled her eyes as she let her hands slide down and off of Renetta’s arms. “You don’t need to address me by rank. Yingyue is fine.” She sat back down in her own chair and braced her elbows on the table between them, steepling her fingers in front of her mouth. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay? I can walk you to sickbay. You look like you’re about to pass out.”  
  
“No, really, I’ll be fine. I just… need something to drink. Water or something.”  
  
Yingyue stood up and offered a hand down to Renetta, who had hunched over in her chair and begun assuming the exhausted and condensed posture that typically followed one of her episodes. Yingyue flexed her fingers, insisting. “Come on. Let’s move to my office. I’ll get you a drink, we can finish whatever else is on your list, and I can send you on your way… to sickbay.”  
  
Renetta took the woman’s hand and stood up on shaky legs. “I don’t need to go to sickbay. I swear, I’m fine. I’m just tired.”  
  
“I don’t believe you, but I’ll be watching. I _will_ take it to Lieutenant Caldwell if you still look like death when you leave.”  
  
“Oh god, please don’t bring it up to Jeremy. He’ll send me home for the rest of the day.” Yingyue let go of her hand, and Renetta wobbled unsteadily, her head reeling.  
  
“The longer I look at you, the more I’m convinced it’d do you good.”  
  
Renetta exhaled sharply and stood up. “I am capable of making my own decisions regarding my health, thank you. I’ll get myself something to drink after we’re done here. As for the notes, there are only a few points left to cover.” She sat back down heavily in her seat and picked up her PADD. “Three-quarters of the way down the document. ‘Systems Of Note.’ That’s where we left off.”


	6. Chapter 6

The transition back into the relative darkness of the Stellar Cartography labs was jarring, but the respite from the light was welcome. There were only minutes left in the current shift, so she didn’t feel terrible about wandering over to David’s station at the fringes of the ballooning main display.  
  
“I don’t know how you get any work done with that thing right in front of you all day,” she said, standing behind his station, pretending to look important. It was less of a façade for the benefit of others and more a posture to keep her from slumping over from fatigue.  
  
David turned his head and glanced up from his work. “Having next to no peripheral vision helps,” he said, the sarcasm sharp in his tone.  
  
Renetta winced. “Touché.”  
  
“How was your meeting with my new boss?”  
  
“Not as pleasant as meetings with mine, but I managed. She’s not as cold as you made her sound.”  
  
“Wow,” he glanced around. “Maybe wait until after I’m off-shift to throw me under the bus around my new coworkers.”  
  
Renetta groaned. “Do you want me to wait outside or are you enjoying this?”  
  
David sighed. “Let me just wrap up this report. It’ll only take a minute.”  
  
“I’ll be out in the hall, then.” She turned and waved dismissively over one shoulder and headed for the door.  
  
Their new dynamic was a tumultuous one. If one of them was having a bad day, avoiding the fighting was a manageable chore. If they were both having a bad day, all bets were off. It was a tiresome cycle, but at the end of the day, they were still friends and the chemistry they’d built was still there. Guilt and a touch of resentment surrounding David’s recent and reluctant career change and Renetta’s recent promotion had made for some thin ice in places, but among friends and on neutral topics, the two got along well enough that it sometimes almost felt normal. Those were the moments that hurt the most when she was alone.  
  
The doors beside her hissed apart and Renetta opened her eyes, her headache surging back the moment the light hit her retinas. David stepped lopsidedly out of the Stellar Cartography lab and into the hall.  
  
“Do you still want to go get lunch?”  
  
“Yeah,” she responded, offended. “Just because you’re in a pissy mood doesn’t mean I’m going back on plans.”  
  
David gritted his teeth. “Why don’t we talk about something else? Anything else.”  
  
“How’s star-mapping?”  
  
He groaned. “Anything _else_ else.”  
  
“Fine, what about PT?”  
  
He glared at her but decided the subject was worth engaging. “It’s fine, I guess. Dansville is nice. Better than working with the Doc directly. She’s got the bedside manner of a replicator, but with fewer warm things to offer up.”  
  
“That sounds aggravating, I’m sorry.”  
  
David shrugged. “It’s better than where I was a month ago, holed up in the gym during gamma shift hoping no one would notice if I dropped the weights.”  
  
Renetta stopped short. David took a couple of extra steps to do the same. He turned and looked back at her. “What?”  
  
She could feel the lump rising in her throat again, the same way it did every time he mentioned things like that. Renetta swallowed it down and took a deep breath. “You know I hate it when you talk like that.”  
  
“I was noting improvement!” he said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “Would you rather I _not_ talk about it?”  
  
“No!” She blinked back tears. “I just hate to think of the idea of losing you.”  
  
He rolled his eye and scoffed. “You lost me back on Makapo,” David replied coldly before turning and walking toward the turbolift.  
  
Renetta stood there, aching from head to stomach. She wanted to turn, walk to another turbolift, and go back to her quarters. _You said you wanted to take another stab at friendship, but this is how you act whenever you’ve had a rough day, you selfish jerk_ , she thought to herself. _You ask, but you don’t want to hear. You tell, but--_ a wave of fresh anger crashed over her, this time directed inwardly. _You tell, but I don’t want to hear. I suppose that makes us even then. ...I suppose we kind of are._  
  
She took a couple of bounding steps to catch up with him, racking her brain for better topics of conversation as they stepped into the turbolift and headed for Ten Forward.  
  
“You know, it might be nice getting to work together again, but without the pressure of being on the bridge.”  
  
David shrugged. “I guess. I kind of liked the tension. It was exciting.”  
  
“Maybe they’ll have you up there at Science. We’re going to be in new regions on a truly improvised and unknown course. Having a cartographer could really be useful.”  
  
He shook his head dejectedly as the lift slowed and changed direction laterally. “My reaction time is too slow. If we ended up in combat, I might be an inconvenience.”  
  
“That’s ridiculous, anyone could run the science station in their sleep. All you do is scan things.”  
  
“Sometimes you need to scan quickly. My arms ended up better off than my legs, but not by much. The best I can hope for is an improved reading rate as I get used to not having any depth perception.”  
  
“Maybe you can get some fancy glasses like Yingyue.”  
  
David turned to her and raised both of his eyebrows. “You didn’t ask her about the glasses, did you?”  
  
“I mean, I kind of did,” Renetta shrugged. “I commented on them.”  
  
David drove a palm into his forehead. “Of course you did.”  
  
“I don’t see what the big deal is. I thought maybe it was a cultural accessory like how Bajorans wear those earrings.”  
  
“Renetta, she’s _human_.”  
  
“I know that!”  
  
“They’re _glasses_. It’s not some kind of fashion accessory.”  
  
“Neither are the earrings! They’re… religious or something. I don’t know. I’m a physicist, not an anthropologist.”  
  
“You’re the worst sometimes, you know that?” David said with an exasperated chuckle as the turbolift came to a halt and opened its door.  
  
“I still don’t see the big deal,” she said, stepping out into the hallway.  
  
“They’re some kind of visual aid for her. Whatever the issue is, she doesn’t like to talk about it, and if you bring it up, you get The Stare.”  
  
“So I’ve noticed.” Renetta shook her head. “I still don’t think she’s as steely as you make her out to be.”  
  
“You’ve hardly had to work with her yet. Just give it time.”  
  
The pair walked through the doors of Ten Forward and received a set of welcoming nods from the bartender, Hob. They found their way to a table at the back of the room and placed an order for lunch. Once the waiter had left, Renetta turned to David. She’d finally remembered what she wanted to talk to him about.  
  
“So,” she began, a devious grin widening on her face. “Have you had time to think about my offer to join us for our next holodeck session?”  
  
“Here we go again…” David groaned, leaning his head back. “How many times do I have to tell you why I think that’s a bad idea.”  
  
“Nonono, I figured out a workaround,” she pleaded, holding out her hands for emphasis. “Trust me. I think an adventuring session would do wonders for you.”  
  
He groaned again and buried his face in his palms as Renetta launched into her explanation.


	7. Chapter 7

“Captain, the alien ship is heading straight into the star,” Commander O’Malley reported, her voice a mixture of confusion and concern, echoing how the rest of the bridge must have been feeling.  
  
“Are they running from us?” Raj asked. The ship was small, with room for ten people at most. If they felt threatened by _Babel_ , they certainly might feel that fleeing was their only option.  
  
Shannon shrugged. “It’s hard to say. If I knew anything about them or anything about the people in this region of space, I might be able to hazard a guess at their behavior. Right now, yours is as good as mine.”  
  
“Should we keep following them?” asked _Babel’s_ flight controller.  
  
Raj shook his head. “No, let them go. If they’re running from someone, it’s not our place to intervene. We opened a line of communication, but that doesn’t obligate them to answer and, unless one of us is in danger, I’m not inclined to go against their wishes. Back us off at one-quarter impulse to show them we’re not a threat.”  
  
“Aye sir,” the ensign said with a nod, entering the command into the console. _Babel_ retreated slowly, and Raj watched the departing vessel with interest. It continued closer and closer to the star itself, marching steadily forward at what appeared to be the small ship’s maximum sub-warp speed. Despite its dangerous course and the fact that _Babel_ was no longer following, the ship did not change course or slow down, and Raj gradually realized that something was wrong.  
  
“They’ll enter the star’s corona in sixty seconds,” Shannon reported, her fascination replaced with a grim sense of foreboding.  
  
“Scan the ship,” Raj ordered. “Are they equipped to survive that kind of journey?”  
  
“Not for long. But I think I found their problem: Their impulse manifolds are locked. They can’t alter their throttle or direction.”  
  
“And they can’t cut the power without cutting power to the rest of the ship,” Raj finished. “Which would lower the shields and burn them up in seconds.”  
  
“They’ll only last a few minutes longer if we can’t help them,” Shannon replied. “What should we do, Captain?”  
  
“The only thing we can do, Commander. Full power to shields, and take us in.”  
  
A sense of resolve settled over the bridge. Shannon nodded to Jemison at the helm. “Set an intercept course, full impulse. Shields to maximum. Red Alert.”  
  
 _Babel’s_ alarm klaxon sounded and a dim red light shone over the bridge. Every officer on the bridge stared intently at their console, working diligently to keep the ship in as close to peak condition as possible. The ship shot forward, closing the distance to its target at breakneck speed. In just seconds, the ship plunged into the blue glow of the star, and Raj felt as if he could feel the heat pounding at the shields. _Babel_ bucked and shook in protest as it strained through an environment it was never designed to handle, bulkheads creaking loudly.  
  
“Tractor range in ten seconds,” Shannon shouted over the clamor. The crew on the bridge held a collective breath as the seconds ticked down. “We have them,” she said as they reached the blocky grey-green craft.  
  
“Get us the hell out of here,” Raj replied, his eyes locked on the viewscreen, still firmly focused on the crippled ship. The starboard nacelle, if the stubby engine could be called a nacelle, was now a molten mess of warped and twisted metal. The port nacelle, on the side of the ship facing the star, was simply gone. The hull was noticeably buckling and peeling.  
  
Shannon’s sensor readings only confirmed his suspicions. “We don’t have time to pull them free,” she said. “The ship is collapsing.”  
  
“Beam them out,” Raj ordered.  
  
“If we drop our shields-”  
  
“I’m aware of the risks, Commander!”  
  
Shannon worked the controls as _Babel_ sped away from the star, still dangerously close. The ship rocked and damage alerts blared throughout the bridge as the shields lowered, and a few agonizingly long seconds later the ship steadied itself, protected once again but still nursing its wounds.  
  
“Thirty-three life signs accounted for, sir,” his First Officer reported, breathing heavily. “I have no way of telling if that’s all of them.”  
  
“That many, on such a small ship? What were they thinking? Any casualties on our end?”  
  
She shook her head. “Reports are coming in now. Several stations are reporting minor injuries, mostly burns and bruises, but nobody’s been seriously hurt. _Babel_ itself is another story. We have hull breaches on decks twenty-six through twenty-nine, and everything from the shield generators to the sensor grid is pretty heavily damaged. If we were anywhere near Federation space I’d say we need to head to the nearest starbase for a month of repairs.”  
  
“And given the fact that we’re more than a month away from a starbase at optimal conditions?” Raj asked, raising an eyebrow at her.  
  
“I don’t know, sir. But I think it’s safe to say that Naazt will not be happy about it.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Damage control teams, get down to the lower decks immediately!” Naazt coughed violently through the plumes of smoke and vapor that had all but consumed Main Engineering. Blinking out tears to clear his vision, he dragged the stable-but-unconscious Ensign Thomas away from the damaged console and into the open area near the center of the room, along with the other wounded. The man was covered in burns, but the emergency medkit’s dermal regenerator had done enough to prevent any of the wounds from being fatal. The stocky Tellarite Chief Engineer stood wearily, wiping violet-colored blood from a small head wound onto his sleeve.  
  
“Thriss, how are the emergency force fields holding up?”  
  
The Andorian woman appeared to bite back an oath as she spun to face him from the other side of the room. Her pristine white hair, grown out to just above her shoulders now, was matted with blood and grime and plastered to the side of her face, but it couldn’t hide the anger in her expression.  
  
“We just vented four thousand cubic meters of air into space and you want a status check on what’s left!?”  
  
“You’re damned right I do!” Naazt shouted back. To a stranger, it probably looked like they were furious with each other, but the truth was simply that Tellarites had a tendency to be blunt, well beyond what most species considered acceptable or polite, and as an Andorian, Thriss had a temper that went straight past _fiery_ to something closer to _volcanic_. She said what was on her mind, she voiced her objections clearly and didn’t let an argument turn into a grudge. Naazt liked that about her, and her willingness to argue with him where other subordinates backed away made her one of his most trusted and reliable engineers.  
  
Her frustration vented, Thriss turned back to her console and studied the data. Moments later she had an answer. “Emergency fields are holding, sir, but they won’t stay that way if we hit so much as a speed bump. The auxiliary generators are taxed to twenty percent beyond specifications, and that’s with no shields, no weapon systems, and life support only functioning at eighty percent. Three of the shield generators are completely burnt out and need to be replaced, and I don’t even want to think about the state of the cargo bays. We didn’t vent any _people_ into space, but I don’t think we can say the same for our supplies.”  
  
“I don’t suppose any of our new guests are engineers?” Naazt offered with a wry smile. Thriss, in the midst of her frustration, had skipped right past the single most important part of her report. The ship may have been crippled, and the damage extensive, but their quick thinking and reaction, paired with the flawless response of the automated systems they maintained, meant that the entire crew would live to see another day. That was no small feat, and he’d be sure to remind the team of that the next time they complained about his aggressive maintenance schedule.  
  
“Come on, then,” he continued, grabbing his toolkit and gesturing wildly with his free hand to the engineers beginning to gather around him. “There’s work to do!”


	9. Chapter 9

The hallway was eerily quiet on Deck Twelve as Raj walked alongside Commander O’Malley. Weary crewmen moved aside hastily as they passed, careful to avoid meeting his gaze. Raj frowned and exchanged glances with Shannon.  
  
“They’re just shaken up,” she offered, always the optimist in their talks.  
  
“They’re asking themselves whether my decision was the right one,” he replied steadily.  
  
“It _was_ the right one.” The firm resolve on Shannon’s face mirrored her tone. “Those people needed our help, and we gave it. That’s what we’re out here for. If we wanted to prioritize our safety over helping people, we could have stayed home. It certainly would have been easier.”  
  
Raj relaxed and let out a deep breath, just as they reached the main sickbay entrance he stopped at the door and nodded to Shannon. “You’re right, of course. Thank you, Commander. I think I just needed someone else to say it. Now, let’s find out _who_ we just saved, and what the hell they were thinking, flying like that.”  
  
Where the hallways on the way from the bridge had been empty and quiet, sickbay was chaos made manifest. Nurses and medical technicians were tending to the urgent wounds, while dozens of other patients rested in the adjacent overflow room. In the far corner, one sickbay bed had a sheet pulled over the body of someone less fortunate than the rest.  
  
“Captain,” Doctor Dupont said briskly as she came to greet them. She looked as tired as the rest of her staff, but was concealing it with the kind of effortless ease that came from decades of practice.  
  
“Doctor,” Raj replied. “How are our guests doing?”  
  
“My _patients_ ,” the woman answered, her irritation showing as she slipped into a pronounced Parisian accent, “are recovering. The majority of them, anyway. I’m afraid we’ve had one fatality, but he was barely alive when you beamed him aboard. He was gone before we could even get him to a bed. As for the rest, I’ve done what I can, and my staff is doing their best, but not one of them is of a species we have on file. Beyond routine trauma care, any operation we do could just as well kill them as mend them until we have an understanding of their biology.”  
  
“How long will that take?” Raj asked.  
  
Clara’s face pinched in sharp irritation. “I can’t begin to tell you, Captain. They’re refusing to allow us to take detailed scans, even of the deceased patient. It doesn’t help that there’s at least five different species represented, and since I can’t do any scans, I don’t know how much variation exists within the groups that _are_ the same species. At this point, we’re making do with dermal regenerators and splints.” The older woman massaged the bridge of her nose and drew in a tired breath. “Please tell me you’re going to talk some sense into them.”  
  
“I’ll do no such thing,” Raj answered. “It’s one thing to save them from a disintegrating ship or provide first aid to prevent them from dying. It’s another altogether to give aid when it’s been explicitly rejected, no matter how much you may disagree.”  
  
“You said they’re _all_ refusing scans?” Shannon asked. “Not just one species, but all of them, as a community?”  
  
The doctor’s brow furrowed in confusion. “The ship’s captain is cooperating with us, but he doesn’t seem to be part of the group. Other than him, yes, every damned one of them…” Clara glanced over her shoulder at the hectic scene behind her. _“Ils ont trop relou…”_ she muttered before turning back to address Shannon. “What’s your point, Commander?”  
  
“Only that every species we’ve encountered out here has been markedly insular, or at the very least had a culture unique to their species. Do you think they come from a coalition of worlds or species? Maybe even a Federation of their own?”  
  
“If they do,” the greying woman answered, “they’d better treat _their_ doctors with greater reverence than they do me if they want to stick around for long.”  
  
“Maybe the Commander and I should have a chat with them,” Raj interjected as gently as he could manage. Doctor Dupont wasn’t exactly known for her soft bedside manner, and she didn’t have the experience of the Starfleet crew when it came to interacting with new cultures. Seemingly mollified, she waved them through to the overflow room, where the atmosphere was slightly less grim.  
  
Roughly two dozen humanoids were littered about the room, gathered at the edges of the crowded space in small clusters and making conversation amongst themselves. Ranging from tall and spindly to short and square, the crowd was a motley band if there ever was one, and even accounting for the wear and tear the trip through the star’s corona must have taken on them, it was abundantly clear from their appearance and ragged clothing that they were accustomed to having very little in the way of possessions. The being sitting comfortably on the medical bed in the center of the room, however, held an aura of self-assured confidence that matched the finery of his attire. Clad in a thin red shirt that shone like silk, the [aqua-toned alien](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/56083957838007357/) looked expectantly at Raj with black eyes framed by orange protrusions that wrapped where one might expect to see a human’s eyebrows. He hopped off of the table and rose to his feet suddenly, his cranial spines flaring out unexpectedly, forcing Raj to take a half-step backward.  
  
“You must be the captain of this fine ship,” he said, folding his hands behind his back and bowing so quickly that it reminded Raj of a chicken bobbing for feed on one of the farms near his childhood home.  
  
“Captain Raj Murali,” Raj acknowledged, extending a hand toward the strange man, who blinked rapidly in confusion before reaching out to take it.  
  
“And I,” he said, pausing with a dramatic flair, “am Captain Haril Zynerin, independent star trader and captain of the _Stormrider_. Or, well, I suppose she was my ship before you came along. I will expect to be compensated for the loss of my ship, of course.”  
  
“Compensated?” Shannon asked incredulously.  
  
“I’m very interested in hearing your justification for that claim,” Raj added.  
  
“You interfered with a perfectly legitimate transport ship,” Haril explained hastily. “Your sudden arrival and threatening posture left me with no choice but to take drastic measures to see to the safety of my passengers and led to the total loss of my ship and its cargo. Under the Free Trader’s Provisional Safety Act, I’m entitled to a sum of compensat ion equal to two-thirds of the value of the lost assets, with interest, to be repaid in-”  
  
“I’m afraid I’m not familiar with any such act,” Raj interrupted, “but even if I were, I seriously doubt that the mere presence of another ship, let alone one whose shields and weapons were not powered at the time of your arrival, would count as _aggressive_. Not to mention the fact that we were already in the system when you appeared. I’m afraid our sensor logs can back up that claim.”  
  
“That they can, but- they can?” Haril’s ego seemed to visibly deflate at this realization. “Perhaps you and I can come to a compromise, of sorts? I _could_ be persuaded not to press my claim for compensation for the ship if you were to cover the loss of cargo and provide free transportation for myself and my passengers to our destination.”  
  
Raj couldn’t help but chuckle at the man’s persistence, and he was very intrigued by the implications of the stranger’s other statements. “I’m unconvinced,” he started, “but I may consider it if you tell me more about your destination. My ship took significant damage during our rescue of you and your passengers, and we will need to find somewhere to complete repairs before we can travel any significant distance.”  
  
“You’re in luck, then!” Haril exclaimed, suddenly recovering his energy. “We were destined for Paradise Station, not far from here. Their mechanics can work miracles, no matter the ship nor the damage!”  
  
“Paradise Station?” Shannon asked, intrigued. “Forgive us, but we’re new to this region of space. What exactly is this station?”  
  
Haril’s eyes seemed to bulge in surprise. “You don’t know it? It’s only the largest trade port in the sector! Home to over one million souls from more than fifty species, and the brightest technical minds in the known galaxy! They say the Builders can do anything for the right price. You need a new ship? They can build it. Want to trade out your old body for a shiny new one? They can grow it! And if that doesn’t have your attention, they have the best vacation resorts in the Quadrant.”  
  
Raj was skeptical, but he didn’t have any other options. He shared a look with Shannon, whose anthropological background had her practically bursting with questions. Raj let out a sigh, and turned back to Haril. “Let me guess: You can guide us there, for the right price?”  
  
The man’s pitch-black eyes seemed to glimmer. “It’ll be worth every credit, Captain, you’ll see. Now, there’s no time to waste, so lead me to your navigation computer. Next stop: Paradise!”  
  


**The adventures of the _USS Babel_ will continue in Season Two...**


End file.
